OIL PALM VALUE CHAIN STAKEHOLDERS MEETING HELD IN ENUGU
OIL PALM VALUE CHAIN STAKEHOLDERS FORUM HELD AT HOTEL CODIAL LIMITED, ENUGU, ENUGU STATE ON TUESDAY, 24TH AUGUST, 2021.
The one-day Oil Palm Value Chain Stakeholders Forum, organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was held on Tuesday, 24th August, 2021 at Hotel Codial Limited, Chime Avenue, New heaven, Enugu, Enugu State, with the theme: Addressing issues towards sustainable development of oil palm. The objective of the meeting was to discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s Sustainable Exploitation of Oil Palm for economic development, address challenges faced by farmers as well as fashion out a robust roadmap for oil palm industry.
The meeting was attended by 73No participants drawn from Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN), Plantation Owners Forum (POFON), National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM), and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Enugu State Young Farmers Initiative, Enugu State Chapter, State Ministry of Agriculture and FMARD.
WELCOME ADDRESS
The Welcome Address was presented by Mr. Matthew Idu, the Honourable Commissioner of Agriculture, Enugu State. He expressed delight at the impressive attendance of States and other stakeholder representatives. He underscored the importance of the stakeholders meeting which is to critically examine/discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s sustainable exploitation of oil palm for economic development, address challenges and chart a way forward for the oil palm industry.
The Hon Commissioner ended his speech by thanking the FMARD for organizing the stakeholders meeting which is apt under the Federal Government view to diversify the economy. The Hon Commissioner thereby wished all a fruitful deliberation.
- ADDRESS BY THE PERMAMNENT SECRETARY, FEDERAL MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
The representative of the Perm Secretary, Mr B. C. Ukattah (Deputy Director-Tree Crops) while welcoming the stakeholders expressed delight with the good attendance of the stakeholders despite the short notice. He maintained that oil palm value chain is among the commodities being promoted by the Ministry. The PS informed the meeting that Stakeholders forum is usually the first series of preliminary activities that are carried out prior to full implementation of oil palm value chain programme.
He further disclosed, the objectives of the Oil Palm Value Chain, which are; to expand area under improved oil palm, achieve import substitution, Improve the productivity of farmers (by increasing the yield), support upstream and downstream processing activities to produce quality crude palm oil and vegetable oil products, create employment opportunities for the youth and build the capacities of farmers along the entire value chain in the 27 oil palm producing States.
Consequently, the Permanent Sec stated that the aim of the forum is to critically examine and discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s sustainable exploitation of oil palm for economic development, address challenges faced by farmers as well as fashion out a robust roadmap for oil palm industry, he however noted that this forum will avail all the stakeholders in the oil palm industry the opportunity to rub minds together in order to chart better ways towards moving the sub-sector forward for the benefit of farmers across the entire value chain.
The PS ended his address, by urging all to discuss exhaustively and proffer appropriate solutions/recommendations that will help to address the challenges of the oil palm industry and move the oil palm subsector forward.
5.0 GOODWILL MESSAGES
Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN)
The OPGAN president, Barr Joe Onyiuke in his good will message thanked the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for convening this stakeholders meeting which is aimed at gathering the who and who in the oil palm sector to brainstorm and map out strategies towards the development of a sustainable oil palm subsector. He also expressed gratitude to the HMA for the numerous grants and subsidies the Association has benefited so far through the provision of free improved nuts from NIFOR and oil palm equipment/machineries such as oil palm tricycles, oil palm mills, nut crackers and separators, motorized harvesters at subsidized rates.
Barr Onyiuke further noted that the thriving oil palm sector is an imperative for economic growth and development of the Country and that the oil palm value chain will not only contribute significantly to the economy but can also serve as impetus or economic diversification.
He also thanked the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele for his massive investment under the anchor borrowers programme to boost local production which he noted has reduced annual oil palm importation by about 22% from $500 million to $42.5 million in the last one year. He underscored the need for massive sustainable funding of the organized smallholder oil palm farmers/growers since they consist about 80% of the market.
In conclusion, he assured all in Oil Palm production that the nation is richly blessed as the sector holds the ace and will propel Nigeria to her economic growth and development.
OP Nursery JV Limited
The General Manager, OP Nurseries JV Ltd, Kehinde Sotonwa in his good will message welcome all the stakeholders while noting that the meeting was to identify and proffer solutions to the issues bewildering oil palm production in Nigeria.
He informed the forum, that the OP Nursery JV Limited is into a joint venture with the NIFOR for seeds/seedlings production, which he noted is a vehicle to mitigate the proliferation of un-guaranteed, low quality oil palm seed/seedlings that is almost becoming a norm.
He stated that their mission is to strengthen NIFOR’s capacity and quarantined availability of high yielding Tenera seeds/ seedlings to oil palm smallholder farmers and plantation nationwide.
He concluded by congratulating the HMA and the staff of the oil palm value chain for convening the stakeholders meeting and wished all a successful deliberation
Solidaridad
The Programme Manager, Solidaridad-Nigeria, represented by Mr. Ernest Ita, in his goodwill message applauded FMARD for convening the Stakeholders’ meeting, which he noted is very apt especially now that the Federal Government is geared to diversify the economy. He further informed the meeting that they have signed an MOU with FMARD to attain self-sufficiency in agriculture and diversification of her economy by providing technical support to government in the development of the oil palm sector.
Mr. Ita also enumerated some of their achievements to include; Profiling 15,500 smallholder oil palm farmers, mapping of 9,600 smallholder oil palm farms, increase women participation in oil palm and vegetable oil production, technological upgrade for 8 Artisanal palm oil mills, set up 16 oil palm nurseries with 36,000 improved sprouted nuts from NIFOR etc.
He informed the meeting that Solidaridad has built a rich database for farmers across the country, which he said will be of help to the Ministry in executing its policies in the development of agriculture, he thereby wished all fruitful deliberations.
BOA
The BOA representative, in her presentation; commended the FMARD for a successful outing while noting that the usage of oil palm is increasing all over the world and wants Nigeria to catch in. She stated that the bank is the leading agricultural finance institution with over 40 years’ experience in rural and agricultural finance. The presenter further enumerated some Agric loan/windows being offered by BOA to include;
Youth Agricultural Revolution in Nigeria; which is tagged at youths/individual Cooperative farmers within the age bracket of 16-36. This particular window allows individuals to borrow up to 1million naira without collateral. This particular window is also applicable for women in agriculture. The presenter noted that the loan period will be determined based on the project type/gestation period of the crop. NIRSAL provides 75% credit guarantee scheme.
Direct Credit Product: This is tagged to finance agricultural productions and Agro-allied activities. Loan volume ranges from N5 million and below to individual farmers and above N5 million to corporate organizations. This very window needs collateral/security in form of landed property with 14% interest rate for agricultural production and agro-processing
BOA representative encouraged oil palm farmers to feel free to apply for agric loan that the long gestation period of the crop will be put into consideration for loan repayment.
TECHNICAL SESSION
During technical session, two (2) papers were presented; (a) Report of the Oil Palm Value Chain Activities and Achievement by Mrs N. C. Okoye and (b) Addressing issues towards the sustainable development of Oil Palm by Dr. Philip Oviasogie.
The Coordinator, Oil Palm, Mrs Okoye N.C. in her paper, disclosed the objectives of the value chain which are to expand area under improved oil palm, achieve import substitution, improve the productivity of farmers (by increasing yield), support upstream and downstream processing activities to produce quality crude palm oil and vegetable oil products, create employment opportunities for the youth and build capacities of farmers along the entire value chain in the 27 oil palm producing States.
Mrs Okoye also enumerated some of the activities of the oil palm value chain to include; production and distribution of improved tenera oil palm sprouted nuts/seedlings for hectarage expansion, encouraging semi wild grove yield enhancement (SWG) by the gradual replacement of old and unproductive palms with improved planting materials, promoting the use of oil palm Chisel/motorized harvesters, procurement and distribution of medium scale processing equipment (MSPE), Oil palm nut crackers and separators, oil palm cargo tricycles which were distributed to oil palm farmers/Associations that applied formally to the Ministry at subsidized rate and organizing farmers Field School, Skill acquisition and workshops for oil palm farmers on Good Agricultural and Management Practices, nursery establishment, field development, modern techniques in harvesting, processing, packaging, and marketing of oil palm produce.
Finally, the Oil palm value chain coordinator, summarized the achievements of the oil palm value chain in 2020 to include; increase in crude palm oil production from 0.998 million metric ton in 2016 to the current 1.029 million metric ton, procurement and distribution of 451,500 improved tenera oil palm sprouted nuts to oil palm farmers/associations in the 27 oil palm producing States at no cost., procured and distributed some equipment/machinery such as automated oil palm mills, nut crackers and separators, oil palm motorized harvesters, oil palm cargo tricycles, polybags etc to farmers/Associations and finally conducted capacity building of oil palm farmers on Good agricultural Practices, Good Management Practices etc, as well as support research and development.
The Second paper on Addressing issues towards the sustainable development of Oil Palm was presented by Dr. Philip Oviasogie. According to the paper, Nigeria’s palm oil Industry is highly fragmented and is dominated by smallholder farmers (SHF) which accounts about 80% of local production (largely technical palm oil TPO) with free fatty acid content higher than threshold for industrial use, while established plantations accounts for less than 20% of total market producing special palm oil (SPO) used largely for industrial purposes after refining.
The presenter further streamlined some of the major constraints/challenges in the value chain to include; use of inefficient milling methods; weak/inadequate capital; lack of data, weak rural infrastructure; weak value chain and linkages; high cost of labour especially in plantation operations, high cost of transportation of Fresh Fruit Bunches (ffb) from plantation to farm mill or selling platform, aging palms, access to fertilizer.
In addition, he suggested some remedies/institutional arrangements to address the challenges listed above to include;
- Understanding the palm oil production life cycle
- Need to harmonize and refocus all government intervention initiatives and goals of multi-stakeholders platforms (MSPs)
- Need for more intervention by CBN
- Improved and sustained funding of research and innovation technologies to ensure the use of right planting materials, adoption of best practices, adoption of good plantation establishment etc
- Need to address sustainability issues with respect to environment matters, land matters, palm oil code of practices
- Adoption of RSPO principles and criteria (P&C)
He concluded by noting that sustainability in palm oil production entails, having a local and global production system based on socially acceptable and environmentally friendly premises which he said is invariably to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all ag
